stephanie brail

I’m going to stick my neck out today and send out my first EARTHQUAKE ALERT!

You don’t have to be psychic or a geologist to know that at some point in the near future or soon enough, Southern California is going to have a big earthquake. It’s getting close to 20 years since the Northridge Quake of 94, so Los Angeles is due. I’ll go one step further.

My feeling is that something big may be gearing up to hit Southern California soon. How soon? I can’t say. But maybe any day now. And if I were in Southern California right now, I’d be making sure my earthquake supplies were ready – especially extra water and food.

Los Angeles was just hit today with a 3.4 – possibly a foreshock:

That doesn’t look so bad, does it? Well, take a look at Southern California from the state view:

Look at all that crazy activity going on! And let me tell you what – the map did not look like that prior to the Mexicali quake that hit on Easter of last year! Southern California was much less active.

Here’s the NON-psychic evidence for a big quake due soon:

1. See those clusters of little quakes in Southern California? Increased geological instability has been developing in the entire Southern California region due to the big Mexicali quake. I’m not making this up. Scientists have reported this.

2. When I first started observing the Southern California earthquake clusters after Mexicali last May, they were much smaller than the above graphic, closer to the border, and only hitting one or two small fault lines. In the past year, these little quakes have been moving up the state, jumping from fault line to fault line. I’m not imagining this – scientists have noted this phenomenon and have been monitoring the movement. (I wish I could find the article for you that I read this information in, but it’s long lost the bookmarks file of my last computer.)

3. Geologists have observed that when an earthquake happens, it will release tension in that particular part of the fault – however, the tension then just moves along the fault to a new part of the fault line. This is how they have been tracking a series of earthquakes in Turkey, and have determined that Istanbul will unfortunately be potentially next in line for a devastating quake.

4. Anytime there is a large quake in the world, it tends to destabilize other fault lines – even fault lines far away. The 9.0 in Japan likely destabilized the entire Ring of Fire region, which is perhaps also why we’ve just seen two volcanic eruptions in Mexico and Chile.

5. We’ve seen big quakes in the following areas of the Ring of Fire: Chile, then New Zealand, then Japan. Will North America follow suit? It may not be Southern California, granted. Some have suggested Alaska or the area of the Pacific Northwest may be next. But it would be a good idea to be prepared just in case.

Those are some very good scientific reasons why Southern California, and specifically, the Los Angeles, may be looking at a big quake soon.

So here’s my “psychic” reason for the alert:

I could be wrong, but I’ve been feeling lately that some sort of major quake in California is on its way – particularly to Southern California. I actually lived there for a long time and left last year, in part due to knowing a big quake was going to hit in the next few years. I was in the last nasty quake – I don’t need to be in the next one. I feel like it’s there, just waiting to happen.

Note: If there is a quake in Southern California soon, it may not yet be the “big” big one. I for some reason have felt for a while that there would be a “smaller” but somewhat damaging “big” quake prior to a really nasty one.

My concern in the long run is the San Andreas fault going off and then having a cascading effect along the fault line. If you look at that map of California above, you’ll see a big “X” where two faults meet, in the southern-central part of the state. There’s a little yellow box on it representing one small quake, the first quake I’ve seen on that X that I remember.

That X is the Tejon Pass, and that line running somewhat north to south is the San Andreas. When and if the BIG big one happens, I’m thinking it may be in that very area. Notice how relatively “calm” that area is compared to the rest of the state. That may actually be a bad sign. Furthermore, those clusters of quakes jumping up the fault lines from Mexico may be headed up towards that area – and when that area starts to rumble, it may be less forgiving.

The point with all this is as follows: Do not become complacent if you survive a relatively “big” quake in Southern California – make sure you are prepared for a possible one-two whammy.

And that reminds me: Japan may not be out of the woods yet in terms of large, devastating aftershocks either!

Hang onto your hats!

Here are my latest “unpsychic predictions” – as always, I’m not claiming to be some master psychic, so take them with a grain of salt! I have had some predictions that have not come to pass (but we’ll see, there’s still time), and some that were iffy, but I’ve also had some hits.

HIT: On November 6, I predicted Glenn Beck would be somehow “taken out.” Since then, Beck has been taken off the air at FOX, though you didn’t really need to be psychic to guess his days might be numbered. I also said he may have health issues coming up for him. Given that he’s had health issues in the past, once again, you don’t need to be psychic to guess that he’ll have more problems in the future. But I’m sticking with that – that Beck is going to have some major health problems, possibly soon.

HIT: In my predictions for 2011, I predicted a lot of storms for 2011, including tornadoes. Sadly, we’ve had the worst outbreak of tornadoes since 1925. I feel we are going to continue to have bad weather this year, and we will have hurricanes too.

MISS (so far): I had been feeling for a while that Obama would not be running in 2012 and either resign, move on to a U.N. post, or be totally taken down by scandal (which I had not posted here). In my last installment, I had previously said that he may have a mild (and fabricated?) accident and be taken out of the public eye for a little bit, because he was getting too unpopular and the powers that be would maybe want him to take a holiday to generate some sympathy from the American people. Instead, with this Osama bin Laden news, it seems the powers that be want Obama in the spotlight a bit more. More on this below.

OK…now on to the new predictions.

Overall, I feel we’re in a very crucial time in American history, and the events that happen in the next 12 months or so are going to be extremely critical. Much of what is going to happen will be shocking, depressing, and downright scary. I am sorry to give bad news. The best thing you can do at this time is to connect with your spirituality through regular spiritual practice, or, if you aren’t spiritual, take good care of yourself and do things that nurture you. Now, on to my first order of business.

1. I HAVE A VERY BAD FEELING. I had a bad feeling prior to the Japan earthquake and mentioned it privately to people close to me, but did not get around to posting about it on the blog. It was also vague and I didn’t have any specifics – just a bad feeling. Now, I have a bad feeling again. It really came up for me when I saw the news about Osama bin Laden being killed. OK, I know not all of you reading this are into conspiracies, but my feeling is that this event is being totally manufactured and Osama bin Laden has probably been dead for a while. I am not the only “tin foil hat” person to think this.

Are we being set up for a “false flag” attack by Osama’s avengers? Am I picking up on an honest-to-goodness real terrorist attack in the works? I don’t know. I just feel that whatever is going on behind the scenes in regards to this story, it’s not good. Something EVIL is afoot. We’re being manipulated, folks, big time. For example, new reports were initially reporting that Osama bin Laden had been dead for a week but it was not announced until they could verify it. Then Obama announced in his speech that he’d given the “kill” order the same morning of his speech. This all comes out exactly eight years after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech. To. The. Day.

Something’s not right here.

If you live in a big city, like Los Angeles or New York City, please be prepared with extra food and water. If you really want to get overly cautious, get some of those surgical masks to filter out dust when you breathe. They aren’t that much money; better to be safe than sorry.

Now, on the positive, perhaps we’re just being manipulated because the powers that be needed to give a bump to Obama’s approval ratings. I would certainly prefer that to a terrorist attack. But that brings me to…

2. Obama’s Birth Certificate. Being the conspiracy-curious person that I am, I’ve been following Karl Denninger’s analysis of Obama’s long-form birth certificate since it was released. Karl, who not only voted for but endorsed Obama, is convinced that the birth certificate is a fake. I am not entirely convinced, but a friend of mine who works for immigration and has been trained to examine documents like these, says there are certain anomalies just on the document itself (having nothing to do with the electronic file) that could call into question its authenticity. He’s a Democrat and no birther, so there may be something to the claims that something is fishy with the long-form birth certificate.

None of this will get any serious play with the mainstream media, however. The mainstream media has a vested interest in the status quo and will therefore continue on its path of ridiculing “birthers” and anyone who “believes the moon landing was faked.” Let me make it clear that I am no fan of the Republican party. But I don’t trust the Democrats either. I think both parties are run by big money. Bush was a puppet, and so is Obama.

Unfortunately, the reality is (and I reluctantly agree) that even if something really were fraudulent, it would be too damaging to the nation to have Obama go down over this. So I don’t think anything will come of the birth certificate investigations going on.

Here’s my prediction however, with a caveat. I have a feeling that this whole birth certificate brouhaha may be the beginning of Obama’s downfall. The birth certificate investigations are perhaps going to lead people down a path to something bigger. Perhaps much bigger.

It comes from this vague feeling that what’s happening now with Obama is way too similar to what happened with Clinton over Monica Lewinsky. I remember when that happened. I was a huge Clinton fan and just loved him to pieces. I did not want to believe that he was a sleazy, dirty old man who was a sexual predator of young interns. So when Clinton first said “I never had sexual relations with that woman,” I believed him. Well, Clinton lied. What was a ridiculous side show turned into Clinton’s impeachment. By this point, we were well into Clinton’s second term so there was really no point to all of it, but Clinton’s legacy was tarnished.

Obama is not in his second term. If anything comes out about him now, it will destroy his chances for re-election. So you can bet his opponents are going to be digging up as much dirt as they can about him. But right now, when someone makes allegations against Obama, Obama’s fans are going to react just like I did when Clinton was first accused: They’ll go into denial. But there are some things that you just can’t deny. Blue dresses with love-making aftermath being one of them.

So the race is on now to see who will prevail in the court of public opinion – the dirt diggers or the propaganda coming out of the White House. Jerome Corsi’s book exposing Obama is coming out in a few weeks, which may also explain the timing of the birth certificate release (not Trump!) and the Osama bin Laden announcement. (Corsi is the guy who “swift-boated” Kerry. As a Democrat at the time, I hated him. But he’s got some sway with conservatives and the center-right because of this.)

So I think there’s a big chance of Obama going down in a major scandal. But I’m not 100% on this. I felt pretty darn certain that Obama was going to have mud in his face like Clinton did, until I saw the news about Osama bin Laden this evening. Prior to the Osama bin Laden announcement, I felt Obama was going to be a fall guy and replaced with a new puppet, possibly a Republican. It now looks like the powers that be are going to try to prop Obama up as long as he can. Maybe it’s because the Tea Party is a wild card and they can’t be assured of getting a Republican puppet nominated. Who knows.

But it’s also a race against time to see if Obama and his handlers are able to make it through the next year without making a really stupid mistake. And that’s possible. Sometimes arrogance leads to a downfall. Obama may feel that he’s so beyond reproach – and he has the shield of “racist!” thrown at anyone who tries to go after him – that he may just do something beyond dumb. Like get caught with his pants down.

3. Not Just June Gloom – June DOOM. The economy is going to take a major beating in June and we may see another big market crash. Ben Bernanke, or “The Bernank,” as people “affectionately” call him, is going to announce whether he’ll be doing more quantitative easing then. If we also have a false flag attack (or a real terrorist attack), then the negative economic affects are going to be multiplied. HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS!!

I am absolutely not qualified to give investment advice, but if I had money in the stock market right now I’d take it out.

On the positive, if you were thinking of getting into precious metals, there may be a buying opportunity coming up.

The next major month of economic risk is November.

4. Fukushima. Let’s not forget the ongoing crisis in Japan at the Fukushima nuclear plant. This is a very serious, serious issue and the media has all but dropped it from the headlines. They are supposedly going to try to put a covering on the plant to contain the radiation, except that the radiation is seeping into the groundwater (so they really need underground containment). The people running this are somewhat incompetent…and Japan is in full-on censorship mode now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they screw up something and there’s an accident during containment construction. And there will probably be another big aftershock in Japan screwing things up even more. It’s not good. I have a healing prayer available here for this situation…please pray.

5. Quakes? A lot of tin foil hat folks are suggesting that the bad weather in the heartland is purposefully being manipulated via HAARP and they are saturating the ground with water to instigate a large quake on the New Madrid fault line. Ehhh…I don’t know about this. I’m going to stick with something big happening on the west coast first. I could be wrong.

6. Any Good News? My intuition is telling me that a lot of the crap we have to go through right now is to help wake us all up. There’s a purpose to it all, that’s all I can tell you.

Be safe!

Here are my Unpsychic Predictions for March 24, 2001:

I can’t believe its already been two weeks since the big Japan quake. Unfortunately, I feel there’s more coming. You do not have to be psychic to be extremely concerned about what’s going on at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The mainstream media has tried to make it out like they have things under control, but then things keep getting worse. Tokyo drinking water has been affected, and additional radiation from Japan (though supposedly in small amounts) has been found all over the globe. Then you read stuff like this about a possible cover up of an actual meltdown, and you can’t help but wonder what’s really going on.

Japan’s Worst Case Scenario: It’s with a heavy heart that I share this awful thought that I had while talking about the tragedy last week with a friend. I wondered if perhaps Japan wouldn’t end up a wasteland, and that the Japanese people would be disenfranchised of their home nation and end up wandering the globe. Let’s hope this was just doom and gloom. That said, I don’t feel this nuclear accident is going to resolve “neatly.” They are probably going to have to entomb the plant in concrete. The environmental devastation in the area thanks to this accident is severe. The people of Tokyo will likely have health problems in years to come due to the additional radiation. I just hope this nuclear plant doesn’t pop a cork and spew radioactive crap into the atmosphere like Chernobyl did. But it would not surprise me.

In my predictions for 2011, I said “something shocking” would occur. I pegged this to a possible terrorist attack, but it could be this Japanese nuclear plant going off. I still feel there might be something else “shocking” in addition to Japan, unfortunately. I do think I hit on the Japan tragedy when I wrote: “Worldwide, I also feel some sort of major tragedy will occur. I am leaning towards it being a natural disaster, on par with the tsunami of 2004. I feel a lot of people will be really sad.” However, I completely missed Japan in my 2011 quake predictions, because I was so focused on California. Which brings me to:

More Quakes to Come? Jim Berkland (whose website is woefully out of date) has said on TV there is a high likelihood of a big quake along the West Coast of America, following the pattern around the Ring of Fire in the past year: Chile, New Zealand, Japan. Having spent a good portion of my life in Los Angeles, I am a bit Southern California-biased and focused, but seriously, I feel if you are living in the Southern California area, please be prepared for something nasty to hit. Northern Californians and everyone along the West Coast should also have earthquake kits ready. But the reason I am more concerned about Southern California is that the Mexicali quake of last year totally destabilized the SoCal region. I’ve been watching the fault maps over at USGS and small earthquakes have been moving north from the border up towards LA this entire past year.

A lot of intuitives think that the New Madrid fault will go off soon – this is the fault in the middle of the United States. There have been more quakes than usual in Arkansas, but I really think these are due to natural gas drilling and not because a fault is becoming more active. I think the West Coast is much more likely to have a big quake soon, but I could be wrong. Still, with the world so seismically active right now, if you are in any area that has a potentially devastating fault, get your earthquake kit together.

More on Los Angeles. Los Angeles is just not a safe place right now. I can’t tell you why specifically, but it’s not. I know I may focus a bit too much on LA because of my ties there, but I had this sense that when Elizabeth Taylor died, it was like she didn’t want to stick around for the crap that was coming. Just a thought. That said, the energy over on the East Coast doesn’t feel too bright and sunny to me either. But LA? Ouch. I’m glad I left.

Politics and Scandals. I feel that people are going to be paying less attention to politics in the next month or so as these big events play out. And I sense a weariness from people on the one hand, and a skepticism on the other. Old left vs. right talking points are just not going to resonate as much as they use to. A lot of Americans are waking up to the false right vs. left paradigm, and the liberty movement is gaining steam. For those of you who are wary of the word “liberty” – do not fear, this is a good thing. There’s a shake-up going on and the people are waking up.

I realize I have shared my concern about the extreme partisan divide in the United States quite recently on this blog; I guess one “positive” result of tragedy is that people sometimes forget about what divides them and focuses on what unites. I hope that the partisan divide lessens and we Americans can come together over time, but there is still potential for the divisiveness to flare back up again, perhaps even doubly so, once we’ve reached the “new normal” after the current crazy world energy plays itself out. People who are in fear tend to point fingers. So we need to work on our fear.

Obama: An Accident? Obama’s getting a lot of grief right now for playing golf while the world burns. I always felt that Obama did not relish the actual job of governing, but more enjoyed the speaking and adulation he received. He should seriously be a self-help guru, not a president. But I get the sense that he may pull back even more from leading…perhaps he will have some sort of accident soon? Nothing life-threatening, but something to just keep him away from the spotlight for a while. Heck, maybe his Wall Street handlers will fabricate it for their own purposes. But I feel he’s coming to the end of his usefulness for the big money cartel and so he’s on his way out in one way or another. He’s just not mesmerizing the masses like he used to, which was why he was useful to them. Now that even the people who supported him are ho-hum at best, they need to find another puppet who puts up a better front. (This is why you should be skeptical of any politician the corporate media slobbers over in 2012 – that’s probably the guy big money wants.)

War and Conflict: I think what’s happening in Libya is helping set the stage for WWIII, but we’re not quite there yet. China may start to flex its muscles soon, but more towards the end of this year, and after the Japan crisis has been resolved one way or another. Though, some folks think WWIII started when we invaded Iraq in 2003…could be, depending on your perspective. I feel like things in the Middle East are simmering right now and not quite at the boiling point.

Cyberwars Redux: In December I made a prediction about the coming cyberwars. The hacker collective “Anonymous” has released an open letter to the people of the United States…though some skeptical folks think this may be a CIA game of “psy-ops.” I think this prediction will be playing out more and more in the coming years.

Well, January is almost over, so I better post these 2011 predictions before the year is half over! Please remember my standard disclaimer: I don’t claim to be some master psychic, and I’m doing this for fun! So here we go, making some wild and crazy predictions for 2011…

I have gotten my first “hit” on a previous prediction! In my predictions of November 6, 2011, I predicted that Keith Olbermann would be let go completely from MSNBC. And he’s now outta there! Almost at the drop of a hat, with barely any warning. We shall see if the second part of my prediction will come true – I said he would “act out” in some way, or may be found to have a drinking problem. I will give the “acting out” a few months or so to come to pass.

In a related note, some Olbermann fans are trying to draft him for the Senate. I could be wrong, but I really don’t see this going anywhere. I think it’s much more likely that we’ll see him going to rehab, or to jail, before going to Washington.

Assassination Attempt on Sarah Palin. I hope Sarah Palin keeps security around her and her children. I would not be surprised if someone tries to kill her this year, especially after all the unfair blame she got for the Tuscon tragedy. If this does happen, I do feel she will be OK and the wannabe killer will be brought down before doing any real damage. I do have some friends who think Sarah Palin should be eaten by a grizzly bear, but they aren’t really serious, and no-one with a heart would want to see her family get hurt, no matter how much they dislike her politics.

Will the Political Rhetoric Die Down? Much was said about “inflammatory rhetoric” in the wake of the Arizona shooting, but will it actually be toned down? My guess is, no, not much, but the rhetoric about the rhetoric will. In other words, you’ll hear less news pundits discussing “should we tone down the political rhetoric?” as other things become more prominent in the news this year. “Rhetoric” will become an issue once again in 2012, during the presidential campaign, and it will be flung back and forth between right and left as both sides will accuse the other of being inflammatory.

More Storms. And I’m not talking storms of a political nature, though we’ll have those too. We’ve had a crazy winter, and I feel that the spring, summer and fall of 2011 will also bring some weird weather. Powerful rainstorms, tornadoes, and more hurricanes this year. Maybe more damaging hurricanes, kind of like we had back when Katrina hit. I don’t necessarily see another Katrina, but we’ve had many years of relative calm in the gulf. This year things will flare up again. 2012 may be even worse.

Earthquakes and Wrong Predictions. So many psychics predicted a huge devastating earthquake for the Los Angeles area in 2010, and they were all very wrong. What gets me though, isn’t that a prediction is wrong – it’s not an exact science after all. It’s that people try to explain away the wrong predictions by saying “Oh, we were able to postpone or prevent this big earthquake with our prayers. We averted it!” Sorry, but I don’t think that’s what happened. If the spirit guides these psychics were talking to actually knew what was going on, they wouldn’t have said “BEWARE! MAJOR EARTHQUAKE! MOVE NOW OR PERISH!” They would have said, “There is a chance of a major earthquake, but you can change this with your prayers.” See the difference?

So anyone who predicted earthquakes that did not happen either happens to be really bad with dates, has a bad channel, or isn’t particularly psychic. Or they are somewhat psychic, but a bit fuzzy, and they won’t admit that they aren’t quite clear on everything. I think this does a disservice to the world at large, because it’s precisely this type of wrong, dramatic ego-based prediction that gives skeptics all their fuel. You give a wrong prediction, and the skeptics say “Look! Psychic abilities are a bunch of bunk!”

Intuition is often a subtle thing. You get information in snippets or hazy visions. It’s often not exact. But just because dates can’t be easily pinpointed, it does not mean that people aren’t somewhat psychic.

But I digress. My “unpsychic” prediction regarding earthquakes is that 2011 may be the year that Los Angeles does indeed see a big nasty one. I’m going to guess centered either near Northridge or in the valley, or up near the Tejon Pass (possibly the San Andreas!). I posted back in November I felt there would be not one, but two big quakes in the LA area, one smaller and less devastating as a foreshock to the big one. I’m going to stick with that. If not this year, then at least one in 2012. I can’t pinpoint exact dates on it, I just feel it will be happening in the next few years.

Violence and Civil Unrest. I may be affected by the fact that I just saw a horrible video of teenage girls beating up a Wendy’s employee, but I feel this is a sign of things to come. We’re going to have more random violence, more shootings, more robberies, and more people going nuts in 2011. We’re going to have things get out of control in some cities. Maybe this will start small, but eventually I predict riots in major cities such as Los Angeles. Maybe not quite yet this year, but the rumblings will start this year at least.

Something Shocking. I mentioned in a previous entry that something shocking may be coming. I could not pinpoint it when I last mentioned it, but I am going to take a leap and say that there may be another terrorist attack on American soil in 2011. It may be a “false flag,” which is a term referring to a fake terror event use to manipulate the public. We have some bad things going on economically, and with China and the dollar, and the terror event may be created as a distraction and manipulation.

I should note here that I had a dream last week that there was a big explosion in Los Angeles. Don’t know it meant or if it had anything to do with the future. I’ll just put it out there.

Worldwide, I also feel some sort of major tragedy will occur. I am leaning towards it being a natural disaster, on par with the tsunami of 2004. I feel a lot of people will be really sad.

WWIII? The tensions between North and South Korea in 2010 were not the start of WWIII, I feel laid the foundation for it. 2011 will not see the start of WWIII, but will lay more groundwork for it. Expect some more chest-beating by North Korea, and perhaps an incident with Japan. I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that WWIII will start with Asia and Russia in 2012.

On a happier note: the amazing Betty White. A lot of people predict celebrity deaths. I won’t do that. But I will predict that Betty White will have a happy, healthy, productive 2011 and live to see 2012. I hope I am right on this one!

OK…some of those are gloomy predictions, but we’re in for a wild ride the next few years. I will have more predictions this year and hopefully some of those will be happier! And remember, these are unpsychic predictions, so if we’re lucky, most of them won’t happen!

I’m wrapping up week two of The Lotus and the Lily and I’m catching up a bit because I have been under the weather lately. My boyfriend thinks it’s probably allergies (due to Austin, Texas apparently being the allergy capital of the world)…I’m thinking it’s a combo of my chronic fatigue syndrome acting up, plus a cold that is being exacerbated possibly by allergies. I will say, I’ve never had allergies that knocked me out like this, but I’ve also never had a cold where my eyelids got puffy (this is the clue big there’s an allergen involved).

There is always an emotional/energetic component to illness, and so I’ll expound upon that a bit in relation to my Lotus and Lily work here – somehow, it is all tied in.

This week of The Lotus and Lily has been about looking at the past and identifying those patterns and negative “thought-forms” that may be holding us back. In some respects, I feel like I’ve already done in the past few months since I’ve newly settled in Austin…leaving a city you’ve lived in for a whopping total of 17 years (with a one-year break in Seattle), when you’ve just turned 40, is going to stir up some navel-gazing.

Primarily I’m glad I lived in Los Angeles, especially in my 20s, though I can honestly say that I feel I may have stayed there a few years too long. In some respects think I might have been better off staying in Seattle in 2003 rather than going back. (I had moved to Seattle for love, but it did not work out, and ended up moving back to Los Angeles after a year. I was this close to staying in the Pacific Northwest, though.)

I liked Los Angeles for the sunshine, the vast array of things to do and places to visit, the beach, the mountains, and the very temperate climate that was good for my chronic fatigue syndrome. There’s a joke that California would be a great place if you got rid of all the people, and while I certainly would not get rid of a lot of the people I met in California, it is somewhat fair to say that the people are one of the big problems with Los Angeles. It’s the nature of the beast – anywhere the entertainment industry is planted, you’re sure to find large pockets of shallow narcissism.

While I know genuinely talented, creative people who got into acting, there’s a heck of a lot more people who get into it because they want easy fame and money without hard work. But sometimes worse than those starry-eyed folks are the greedy, pushy jerks who don’t have any creative talent but want to be around fame and fortune, and that includes the agents, wannabe agents, producers (or those who claim to be producers but aren’t really), overly eager production assistants, and the assortment of (for some reason) mostly short, snobby 20something guys who are trying to claw their way up to being a hot shot producer by kissing up and name dropping.

These people definitely affect the vibe of Los Angeles. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll find lots of nice, smart, hard-working people in LA too. But you’re surrounded by a lot of slime. And it just seems to create an environment where people are slightly off-balance. It’s probably not fair of me to say I met a lot of nutty people in LA, because I’m sure quite a few people would call me nutty (especially with the new age work I do), but I mean nutty in a harmful, awe-inspiring, unbelievable way.

There was the friend who in her mid-30s was growing pot in her apartment closet for her boyfriend and had a stripper pole in her living room, and who fell down drunk on sidewalks and acted like a 20-year-old. She became furious with me one night, because I let her drive drunk. I would have never done that if I had known, honestly. I thought she was sober enough to drive, because she wasn’t falling down or being obnoxious like she normally was when she went out and drank. She “seemed” sober to me. So, she got mad because I should have been the responsible one to stop her from driving, but clearly I was distracted by the good-looking guy I had met at the bar, and thus was being a selfish bitch.

Never mind that it really shouldn’t be my responsibility anyway to manage her drinking and driving…certainly I wasn’t there each and every time she drank…but because I didn’t just that once stand up and be the goody-goody, she became furious and that ended the friendship.

It was kind of at this point that this slow realization hit me that maybe I really didn’t need to have friends who got so drunk they fell down on the ground, nor friends who had little pot farms in their apartments, especially considering I rarely drank and did not enjoy getting high! What the heck was I doing hanging around people like this at age 34?

But in LA, everyone lives an extended adolescence and the craziest stuff just seems so normal. Drugs, alcohol, sex – it’s all there in front of your face if you happen to go to anything social such as a club or a party. You half expect to see young women out with short skirts and no underwear if you go out to the Sunset Strip on a Friday or Saturday night. OK, I would dress up in skimpy clothes when I was younger but I never did that no underwear thing. In fact, I’d be the one wearing a pair of shorts underneath my miniskirt.

So I never really fit into these scenes. Oh, I went out and “partied” but never fully participated. I went clubbing because I liked dancing. I didn’t do the drug part of clubbing. Half my friends would be “rolling” on “e” and I’d be totally sober and drinking water, but nursing it like a drink.

I still had a lot of Midwest girl in me and while a part of me admittedly found the Hollywood scene to be exciting, another part of me felt somewhat put-off by all the decadence, but I would tolerate the drugs around me because I didn’t want to be judgmental (even though, ultimately, I still am judgmental! Aren’t we all?). Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like they don’t do drugs in the Midwest either – the University of Michigan had more than its share of potheads when I went there. But in Los Angeles, there’s just this atmosphere of sleaze that transcends the stupid things you might do as a young person in a Midwest college town.

The way I did try to fit into the whole LA thing was not with drugs but with men. I did my fair share of oat sowing. I liked going out and seeing if I could pick up the hottest guy at the club. I seemed to go out with a good number of male models, though that doesn’t really mean much considering half of the guys in LA are wannabe actors-slash-models. All the while I wanted a serious relationship but could not find one…I was too busy with the pretty boys to find the man of substance. Oh, that’s not totally fair…I did date quite a few guys who were not models by any stretch of the imagination, nice, normal guys even. Just nothing clicked with those. And I really needed a smart guy, and frankly, it’s just a lot easier to meet a good-looking guy in LA than a smart one. (There were one or two good-looking smart guys I dated. I did try to keep them, just not successfully.)

Finally I hit a turning point where I realized that I did not want to be caught up in the exciting but exhausting shallow merry-go-round, and I turned my attention away from clubs and pretty boys to my spirituality. And Los Angeles is actually a good place for that too, because once you leave the velvet-roped clubs of Hollywood behind, you’ll find yoga studios and spiritual centers and all sorts of places to get your new age groove on. Yoga got me much more grounded and on track, and meditation and mantra got me away from all the drama and ego-driven focus.

So what does all this have to do with my Lotus and Lily practice? Well, we were asked to look back and here I am, looking back on almost two decades in a town that ultimately did not really give me the life I wanted – honestly, by now, I thought I’d be married with two kids in a house somewhere – but somehow got me on this very strange spiritual path that I’m on.

I can’t help but live and breathe spirituality, even though I don’t feel that I’m as spiritually evolved or as open as I’d like to be. It’s very odd to me that I ended up putting up a Reiki website where people from all over the world come for my Reiki attunements. I don’t feel like I really have any hard answers or that I’m that wise. Sometimes I do have a moment of the “Grandself” coming out (as Janet Conner calls that higher part of you), but I seem to be much more insightful about helping others than myself. (Isn’t that the case with a lot of healers?)

Those Pesky Negative Thought-Forms and Beliefs
In my Lotus and Lily workbook for the week, I am asked to come up with some negative thought-forms that might be holding me back in my life. As I think about that and my Los Angeles experience, a few things come up for me:

1. Somewhere I think I must be a bad person and do not deserve a wholesome, happy life because I engaged in some behaviors that were not really the “best” options at the time. Somehow, I must be “tainted.”

2. I had a pattern of attracting friendships with women who had love/hate relationships with me. I finally wanted off that merry-go-round too, and ended up being perhaps a bit draconian in cutting certain friendships and moving on. I don’t regret that, actually, but feel somehow that the spurned former friends are there in the background, wishing me ill will and ready to pronounce to the world what a holy bitch I am if I ever choose to put myself out there more. And actually, the reality is that there are one or two of them where I wouldn’t put it past them.

The thing is, there have been times in my past that I was a selfish bitch, or I was just being an idiot, and maybe I just need to come to grips with the fact that even though I have not lived a perfect life that doesn’t mean I am not worthy and can’t put myself out there (i.e., by writing my blog, writing a book, or doing whatever it is I want to do).

3. In line with number two, I’ve been much more careful about getting too into friendships without first taking the time to really assess whether a person is safe or not. Unfortunately, while I know logically that a lot of my issues had to do with my unconsciously drawing in toxic people, there’s a part of me that believes I am not worthy of better.

As you can see, a lot of the negative thought-forms have to do with a basic feeling of unworthiness – and I’ve actually said to many clients, I believe the core issue that everyone has is that somewhere we feel we are unlovable.

Now, going back to week one of The Lotus and the Lily, I identified my “intention” in the course as being one simple word: INTEGRATION. We were then given an assignment to write a prayer for the course. I had not been inspired and didn’t have mine done by the second call. When I heard some of the long, beautiful prayers on the call I felt that somehow flowery phrases were not right for me.

A little voice in my head told me that my prayer was to be simply one word. Was it an English word? No. A one-syllable word? No. A sanskrit mantra? No. What was it? The word then popped into my mind: SHALOM.

Now, I am not Jewish but I have been studying Kabbalah recently. I did not know the full meaning of “Shalom” at that moment, however. I just knew it meant “peace.” When I got off the call I looked up Shalom on Google and it means much more than that. It means, in part:

Completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.

The webpage I found goes on to say:

“So in essence, when you speak out the word SHALOM – you are not only proclaiming peace, but all the above meanings of the word over that person – that’s a mighty blessing!!!”

Wow. The perfect prayer! And I had no idea! Or I guess I did, some part of me.

Integration, wholeness, health, prosperity, peace…I’ll take it.

So tying all this in (yes, there’s a point to my long-winded meandering)…while I still don’t know why I needed to experience the bad things I did in Los Angeles, it seems that they did in part lead me to my spiritual path. And ultimately, I have to be on this path because I feel it’s the only way to heal my chronic fatigue syndrome, which is something I got in high school.

When I meditated earlier today on why I was sick and relapsing now that I was in Austin, the answer my “Grandself” (aka “Higher Self”) told me was this: In order to survive in Los Angeles, I had to keep a part of myself shut down and protected. I happen to be very energetically sensitive. I’m empathic and a “highly sensitive person” by nature (though a tough bitch sensitive, which I’ll write more about later). Now that I’m in Austin, and starting a new relationship, my heart is opening and I’m able to take down some of the emotional walls I had in Los Angeles. But I’m feeling vulnerable, and I’m also not used to dealing with the added influx of energies coming at me without the thick heavy shield.

So I’ve been having a bit of a chronic fatigue syndrome relapse, and getting sick, because I’m a bit energetically overwhelmed and haven’t fully adjusted. There are some things I need to do spiritually as well as physically to learn how to have a more open-hearted “shield” and that’s going to take a little time. But I should be getting stronger and ultimately more healthy in the long run as I let go of the old “stuff.”

Part of my “integration” will then be to integrate the different sides to me – those parts of me that have been “naughty” and “nice” – and forgive myself, learning how to have an open heart safely (safety is important) and be able to live in a more heart-centered way without being overwhelmed by outside energies.

I think we are all intuitive, so what I share here are some intuitive feelings and then some stuff that’s purely pulled out of thin air. I don’t claim to be a “psychic.”

2011-2012: I’m not posting any specific 2011 predictions right now (maybe at the beginning of January), but I’ve noticed a lot of intuitives getting very nervous about something “big” happening next year. Part of me wonders if we’re all just collectively freaking out because we’ve bought into the Mayan calendar story (2012 is just around the corner!!!), but I also know logically that the economic mess we are in is probably not going to end well.

I do agree something shocking and unexpected will happen next year. What is that shocking and unexpected thing going to be? I can’t tell you! If I could, it would not be shocking nor unexpected!

Now…I do feel a dark cloud is coming in over America…the energy is not good but we in part create that energy. So I’m thinking about ways to inject some pro-active, positive energy into all the doom and gloom. I don’t know about you, but I’m not taking the possible collapse of America and life as we know it sitting down.

WikiLeaks & Cyberwars: The cyberwars have begun. (They are also referred to as “data wars.”) “Hactivists” (the combination of “hacker” + “activist”) are hackers who are using their skills for protest. In response to the shutdown of WikiLeaks accounts, hacktivists have been hitting Mastercard, PayPal, and Amazon’s websites. This is just the beginning, I feel, and if the government/corporate oligarchies continue to smack down on free speech, you can bet the hactivism is just going to increase.

After all, who actually runs the computers and networks of the government and corporations? Computer nerds, who are often anti-authoritarian and not tied to social approval like CEOs and politicians are. I would not be surprised if hactivists shut down the country for a day…but of course, when that happens, more smackdowns will occur and then more protests. All of this will be an excuse for more governmental control, which will end up stirring up more anti-government sentiment and so-on and so-forth. Things could get super messy and disruptive.

Alternative Internets: With the above in mind, I expect that alternative Internets will start cropping up that are beyond corporate/government control. I didn’t make this up – years ago I read about an idea for a peer-to-peer Internet run on wifi from personal computers. Not only do I think there will be an Alter-Internet someday, but a variety of Internets, some of which will be set up for people who have a particular interest (such as gaming). Some will be open and some will be encrypted so only those who have the codes can enter. These Internets will be vital to maintain freedom of speech and help organize people when and if governments get out of control.

Martial Law: Are the TSA body scanners preparing us for martial law? I don’t sense martial law coming in for all of America, but I do feel there will be civil unrest in some cities that will end up creating a de facto martial law when the National Guard gets called in. I really do have a bad feeling about the future of Los Angeles, which is one reason why I left.

President Palin? I think Palin may run for 2012, but I don’t think it’s her time to president. Strangely enough, I think she still has a good chance of being our first woman president, but maybe in about 20 years, when the country will be hugely different (maybe even organized differently), the zeitgeist will have shifted dramatically, and those people who have been rabidly anti-Palin will frankly have bigger and better things to worry about, such as their gas rationing under Peak Oil.

For some reason, I see Palin reinventing herself in the next 10-20 years as being an advocate for the poor. That might sound strange…but understand that she still won’t be pushing for government programs, but trying to get people together to help people in need. When the economy collapses, a lot of middle class will become poor, so poverty will become a huge issue for a lot of Americans. When Palin takes up this banner, people will perceive her differently. (Do not ask me where this strange idea comes from, as I said, I am pulling some of this stuff out of thin air.)

Obama Retiring: I don’t see Obama as president in 2012. I do not feel he will be assassinated (so don’t worry about that), though I always felt he would die somewhat young (more due to his health from his cigarette addiction). I don’t see him being president past this term, perhaps because he chooses not to run again. But I also feel there will be a lot of shocking, bizarre, crazy things that will happen in the next presidential election, so how this all falls out will be nothing that we could have possibly predicted.

Economy: The Powers That Be will continue to try to prop up the dollar, the banks, and the economy through short-term measures that will ultimately result in a lot more long-term pain. All of this will result in major financial crisis for the globe (and all of this may have been orchestrated). Will there be a United States dollar in the future? Hmmm maybe. But don’t put all your eggs into that basket. This is why there has been such a rush for gold and silver, though there’s no guarantee anything is safe. Your best bet is to look beyond the mainstream media spin and start reading the econobloggers such as Karl Denninger, who really lays out the corruption in colorful language and takes everyone to task, including Democrats, Republicans, the Tea Party, everybody.

OK, those are my current predictions…if you have any others you want to share, please do below!

I arrived in Austin late October 3, weary from a long, hellish drive from Los Angeles in an overheating Jeep. (Note to anyone who is driving over the Rockies in any car, but especially one loaded down with stuff: Turn off the a/c when driving up those long slopes!) Despite being overwhelmed and exhausted, I was still happy to be here.

I had rented an apartment sight unseen (originally I was going to sublet another unit in the same building, and when the renter decided to stay, I took a similar unit on the second floor). I was mostly pleased with my new home, with one glitch. When I arrived, the apartment had a puddle in the carpet by the air conditioner. The place stunk to high heaven due to the festering puddle! But the maintenance guys did a really great job in cleaning it up and fixing the central air (a must for central Texas). But I had plenty of other perks to be happy about – an actual dishwasher for one. In Los Angeles, most affordable apartment buildings are fairly old (from the 50s, 60s, and 70s), so you have to pay premium for a dishwasher. Oh, to have a dishwasher again! Heaven!

I even have hookups for a washer and dryer (once again, a total luxury in LA), but decided against the investment for now, seeing as there’s a huge laundry room around the corner with shiny new machines and an easy-to-use debit card system for payment. It’s funny, how things that I’m sure many others take for granted, can become a source of excitement for those used to cramped urban living quarters. I was speaking to a friend in LA, who is also planning a Texas move, and she was also thrilled at the thought of having a dishwasher and washer and dryer. “I can finally live like an adult!” she said. And heck, it’s about time…I’ve been living like an adolescent for 10 years too long.

Austin: Beyond the Stereotypes

When I first told my family I was planning on moving to Texas, they reacted somewhat strongly. A lot of people have pre-conceived notions about what Texas is about, thinking it’s full of scary rednecks and worse. I suppose there are scary rednecks here, but there’s a lot more too. Austin, in particular, is a “liberal” town, but I don’t like to use that word as it has too many political connotations. “Eclectic” is perhaps a better term.

There are the guys who are stereotypically Texan. In fact, I did not realize until I moved to Texas that the character Boomhauer on King of the Hill is actually fairly close to reality. There are Texas guys who have thick accents and tend to mumble to the point where you can barely understand what they are saying. (I had to ask the guy helping me at Jiffy Lube to repeat himself.) Most are friendly; and otherwise most people I’ve met here don’t seem to have much of an accent at all.

I do notice that people in Austin overall seem more relaxed and friendly than in Los Angeles, except for some of the college students, who are busy trying to revive the angry goth trends of 1990. (Hey guys, just a suggestion…we did that already…come up with something new for a change!)

My apartment complex seems to be fairly diverse; families, older people, college students, and quite a few folks who are blind. (There’s a school for the blind in Austin, and we’re right on a bus line.) I haven’t really met my neighbors; they seem similar to apartment dwellers in LA in that they keep to themselves (which is fine by me).

I’ve met other Austinites by going to a few events, including a meeting of the newly formed Austin chapter of the Holistic Chamber of Commerce. This was a bit trippy – I had not only gone to a few meetings of the newly formed original Holistic Chamber in West Los Angeles, but I had actually taken money at the door. I knew the original founders. I had no clue ther was an Austin chapter…and for good reason. The meeting I went to was its very first. I just “happened” (through some sort of synchronicity) to find out about the meeting a few days before it happened, because I was searching for places to go and things to do in Austin. I’ve never been to a Unity Church, so I’m not sure what compelled me to Google the name, but I found one online in North Austin (Unity Church of the Hills), and there in the listings was the Holistic Chamber meeting.

And here’s what’s great about being in a smaller city than Los Angeles. People actually go to stuff. It can be so hard to get people to events in LA unless they are headlined by someone super famous. The Holistic Chamber meetings I went to in LA were moderate in size. The one in Austin was bigger! Now, it was the first meeting, so maybe attendance will shrink in future sessions, but it was amazing how many enthusiastic people showed up for the kick-off. One note though: In LA the Holistic Chamber always had these great food spreads…in Austin, there was a “bring your own bag lunch” note that was unfortunately omitted from the Unity website listing. I brought nothing to eat! Lucky for me, my neighbor shared with me half of her shrimp “po boy” sandwich. In California, it would have been something vegan or made out of raw foods, but I was happy to have the breaded shrimp for a change…it was delicious!

What was even more amazing was how many people were tapped into the spiritual things going on in Los Angeles, like Agape (with Reverend Michael Beckwith). With that, I really didn’t feel far from home. There are a lot of mindful, conscious, spiritual people in Austin. So if you think that in Austin people are only stereotypical, angry Bible thumpers, or conversely only grungy musician types, you are sorely mistaken. (Though, there are the grungy musician types here too, for sure!)

Granted, I did see some Bible-thumping abortion clinic protesters on my drive back from a workshop today, something you’d be hard-pressed to find in Los Angeles, but they were peaceful and held up signs asking for people to “pray.” Hey – they are taking an action on a cause they believe in, so as long as they aren’t hurting people, more power to them.

Now, one thing that puzzles me about Austin is the number of smokers. While there are definitely people who smoke in LA (especially the younger crowd), it still surprises me that anyone chooses to smoke in this day and age. My mom (who has been living in Florida for many years now) tells me that smoking is a Southern thing. While you won’t find the smoking so much at the new age events, you will find it in apartment complexes, which gets particularly annoying when people think the rest of us won’t care if they are outside on their balcony, smoking, talking and COUGHING until 2 am on weeknights! (I think I’m going to have to have a talk with the management about those guys.)

Fortunately, Austin, like Los Angeles, has a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. This was met with huge opposition as the death of the live music scene in Austin – but things still seem to be hopping. It’s kind of ridiculous to complain in a city where it’s fairly warm (if not steamy throughout the year). Patios and outside decks work just fine for smoking…and they’ve worked fine in LA for years.

Austin has a strong libertarian bent…which may be cause to rebel against such a ban…but can a libertarian case be made that people don’t have a right to engage in behavior (such as indoor smoking) that is proven harmful to others? Hmm…what would Ron Paul say? (BTW…I’ve seen more Ron Paul bumper stickers here than Obama ones.) But with the headquarters of Whole Foods here, Austin also has a strong (and possibly growing) health nut crowd. In addition to Whole Foods, there’s also Sprouts, the HEB’s health food offerings, and Sun Harvest (which is conveniently located across the street from my apartment complex). Sadly, however…Austin lacks one big thing: Trader Joe’s!

The nice thing about Austin’s healthy side is that you have it balanced out by the Texas “we eat red meat” contingent. There are tons of places to get BBQ and brisket here. I am all for eating healthy and holistically, but I am not a vegan (for a variety of reasons) and sometimes the holier-than-thou rigid food religion surrounding vegetarianism got to be a bit much in LA. Yes, I am a holistic healer who eats red meat. I am not ashamed of it either. (For a very thoughtful site on vegetarianism and why it may not be enough, check out Beyond Vegetarianism.)

Overall, life is pretty good in Austin…I still don’t have my apartment fully setup yet (no living room furniture, though my office is mostly functioning). I haven’t figured out my routine yet, I haven’t made my friends yet, and I don’t even know where to get a haircut. But despite a few things like living room puddles and late-night chatty neighbors, and the worst, no Trader Joe’s (sniff), I am finding Austin to be a really great place so far.

After many years of Southern California living, I am moving out of Los Angeles. I love the weather, the sunshine, and the ocean! I do not love the shallow plastic people, the traffic, or the sprawl. But mostly, the main reason I am leaving is that the energy does not feel good here anymore.

“Energy” can mean a lot of things…and I’m talking somewhat of the “chi” of traditional Chinese medicine but also the “energy” of emotion. Cities and locations can have energies. When I first moved to Los Angeles (now aging myself by admitting this was in 1992, fresh out of college), the riots had just happened. The “energy” in Los Angeles at the time was one of unease. Throughout the 90s the energy slowly brightened and Los Angeles felt “happy” for a while.

Now, in 2010, the feeling of unease is back. The energy is uncomfortable here. Sometimes it makes me feel downright icky…I have a feeling of urgency, as in: “I need to get the heck out of here!” This feeling of wanting to move started last year, but the icky feelings didn’t intensify until this spring.

I’m not the only one who has noticed the energy shift. A good friend of mine who had moved away to South Africa a few years ago visited in May and told me that the whole mood in Los Angeles had shifted. People here were more “somber” and there was not the sense of celebration he felt when he lived here.

The other day, another good friend of mine told me that he felt people here were “sad.”

“When I go outside, Stephanie, people seem so sad now. So I try to lift them up by sending them love if I can. They seem so stressed.”

Of course, the national economy is in sorry shape, so it could be that a lot of people everywhere are “sad and stressed.” However, in a recent trip to other parts of the country, I did not feel the concentrated stress levels I’m feeling here.

There’s a darkness descending over this city. I am reminded of a theater I used to be a member of. It was thriving for a while but then shut down. About six months prior to the shutdown, I started feeling a “darkness” when I walked into the place. It was like the place was dying. The energy felt dead in a way.

This is how Los Angeles feels to me now sometimes. While it’s not totally a “dead” energy, there’s definitely a big damper being put over Southern California right now.

I’m moving to Austin, Texas, and when I was visiting there, the energy was much different. A lot more alive and happy. People are having fun there…I’m sure the economy is hitting people there too, and it’s not all sweetness and light, but there’s just a lot more joy in that city than in Los Angeles right now.

I have other friends who are planning on escaping Los Angeles soon. Some to Denver, one to Houston, and another considering Brazil.

My concern about Los Angeles is that it’s headed for a decline (at best) and at worst, civil unrest. Many storefronts are closing here, although there are pockets of vibrant activity still. Downtown Culver City is still bustling, but there’s an entire strip of stores on Washington Blvd. not too far away that are empty and for rent.

My friend who noticed the sadness also told me that at the piano bar he goes to in Silverlake, only about half the people as usual have been attending in the past few months. “Restaurants are empty,” he said.

Now, it could just be the summertime doldrums. But…with Los Angeles due for another big quake, California broke, a very uncertain economy, and all this bad energy, I don’t want to stick around and find out. I feel it’s time to “get the hell out of dodge” and to any friend of mine who expresses a desire to leave, I tell them they might want to listen to their intuition and move on.

Does this mean it’s bad to stay? Not necessarily. But for some people, it may be time to move on.